Game:

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (2016)

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Originally recorded: October 17, 2022
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Well, it finally happened. I finally got to a gameplay segment that is clearly going to take more than a single session to complete properly. I'm just surprised it took all the way until Chapter 6 for something like this to happen. Honestly, the second I saw just how many warp points there were in the sixth realm, I had a feeling that this was finally going to pass. I would like to think that I made decent progress this time around, though.

This episode's title is another one of those pun names that just popped into my head. Granted, considering where I left things off in the main story and the side content I ended up doing this time, this may very well be the perfect title. It was just one of those things that popped into my head. Granted, I love doing puns with character names in general... and maybe I'm still getting over the fact that my last livestream consisted entirely of wordplay based around a single pun. I have to wonder if I would've done anything with "Renne", had I known how her name is actually supposed to be pronounced. Still, Kilika had a surprisingly large role this time, despite remaining a NPC. Having said that, between her and Phillip, the main guardians get some pretty badass special attacks. I can't wait to see who else is in store and what sick moves they'll pull off in the process.

I did briefly mention NISA's impromptu announcement for a week of Falcom-related news in the stream, but I didn't really go in depth with most of it. So I'll rectify that in this journal. Basically, the day I recorded this, they announced a release date for Trails of Azure -- the fifth game in the Trails series and the finale of the two-game Crossbell Arc -- which is set of March 14th in North America, with slightly later dates for Europe and Oceania. They also announced a PS5 version of Ys IX: Monstrum NOX, similar to the PS5 port of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana... but honestly, that doesn't really matter much to me as a PC gamer. Likewise, the "events" scheduled for Tuesday through Thursday are pretty low-key. But Friday is promising a "special update" and considering the fact that NISA promised new game announcements (plural), speculation has been running rampant.

Personally, I still buy into the most likely outcome: NISA will officially announce an English localization of Kuro no Kiseki, the eleventh game in the overall series and a relative sore point for some of the more extreme members of the Western fanbase, given recent events. The prevailing logic is that new game "announcements" would likewise include the Ys IX PS5 port: two is technically plural... and we didn't know about that port beforehand, no leaks or rumors regarding it at all. Likewise, it's possible they could just do ports for the other Falcom games they've already released -- Cold Steel III and IV. But honestly, considering they led with a newer game, that'd be pretty lame. Other people seem to think that it could mean NISA-developed ports of Trails in the Sky and Cold Steel I & II to the Switch, even though I doubt XSEED would budge on that one. Unfortunately, there was one other bit of speculation that managed to worm its way into my brain. What if NISA is facilitating the announcement of Falcom's game for 2023 (all but confirmed to be Ys X)... with a worldwide release in the cards? Seems doubtful, even though I think that Falcom's partnership with NISA seems to be getting stronger, which should shorten the gaps between future games' Japanese and Western releases. But we've still got a ways to go before my theory can be put to the test.

Unfortunately, my subconscious mind wasn't satisfied with that. While I usually welcome shower thoughts, sadly, an uncomfortable one crossed my mind as well. What if Falcom and NISA are partnering up to release older games? After all, NISA helped facilitate the release of the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, so why not do similar compilations for older Ys and Legend of Heroes games... especially ones that never came out here? My thoughts were basically using the fan translations of the PC Engine and Super Famicom versions of Ys IV and Ys V, while using Hudson and Konami's English versions of Ys I & II, III and VI. Meanwhile, a Legend of Heroes compilation containing English translations of the "Dragon Slayer" duology and the "Gagharv trilogy" would be awesome too. I mean, it's obviously actually expecting this to become a reality feels naive at best. Still, I'm always amazed at just how good my subconscious mind is at making me sad.

The next session is going to be another filler. My schedule for this week is going to be extremely limited, so I'm only barely going to be able to find the time for a second recording this week. Fortunately, I managed to find several Star Doors and even another Moon Door, so I definitely have enough side content at my fingertips to do something worthwhile.